So far this shawlette is screaming “feel me”! It is soooo soft and the yarn is very nice. At first I had a little problem with my stitch markers splitting the yarn, so off with the pretty stitch markers and on with the pieces of my bright orange drinking straw. FYI: If ever you are looking for a lot of quick stitch markers, cut up a drinking straw. I asked for an extra one the other day at my latte stand and it works great!

In this Mystery KAL we will receive a clue every Thursday for 4 weeks. Right now I thinking I want a BIG shawl… not a shawlette!!! So I may have to pick up a few more skeins of yarn while it’s still there.

Also if you are looking for a great first time KAL, this is the one, so jump in now! She has wonderful instructions and video clips on the techniques.

OK… guess I better get back to my OTHER KAL project… last Thursday the 4th clue came out for the Susanna IC Mystery KAL and I still had 4 rows to go on clue 3!

Aside from the fact that there was TONS of smoke in the air on the beach, it was a perfect 4th of July night!

bye bye sunset... hello fireworks!

It has now become a tradition I guess you could say. My mom comes to visit every year for the 4th of July holiday. We always have a great time. She crochets, and works on cutting fabric for her quilt projects, and I knit and we both laugh and gab A LOT! This year it also included a Murder She Wrote marathon playing on TV while we gabbed. LOL Good times. I was so happy to be able to give her the sweater that I have been working on FOREVER! And did I take a picture of her in it? Of course not. I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture. So I’ll have to go visit her soon to get one. I can say that it was the perfect length and looked beautiful on her.

The wildlife didn't seem to mind the fireworks.

Mom and I went to Elma for her to get more fabric… now I know where I get it from. She buys fabric, like I buy yarn! Daughter like mother. I couldn’t help myself and I bought just a little bit of yarn. 3 skeins of Serenity Garden Yarn. In these wonderfully colors. It’s 100% Microfiber, and on Sunday I started a scarf. It’s called 28’s Cousin 53, I’m on row 44 now. Each row from 44 to 53 has 514 sts!!!! That’s a lot of stitches. My goal is to have it done this weekend so I can ONE, wear it next week. And TWO, get started on a pair of socks!

So bright and colorful

This is a nice little pattern that I have been eyeing for sometime now and just wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it in a wonderfully soft yarn or something fun and whimsical… fun won!

About 15 rows or so done in this picture.

My other finished project is the gorgeous Mezquita shawl. I finished this one and blocked and got to wear it to work this week. It is so soft and yummy.

Blocking!

This was a really nice knitting project. When I got to the end of pattern instead of doing the bind-off I added 5 seed stitch rows to help keep it from rolling so much. It’s seems to have done the trick for the most part. I love this scarf!

OK, back to knitting. I’ll post more later! Looks like we are going to have a sunny and wonderful weekend!

I said “It’s Here” twice, because I received it twice! Here’s the story… On January 10th I ordered my yarn from Mason’s and on Feb 10th I emailed to let them know that my co-worker received her yarn and she ordered it 9 days AFTER me. So Simon (@Mason’s) sent me another package on Friday the 11th of February. He said that he had received a package back in the mail because it did not have enough postage on it and maybe that is what happened to my package. So on that Friday I thought I would be receiving a package in a couple of weeks. And poof! on Monday the 14th my 1st package arrived. I was thrilled, what a wonderful Valentine’s gift for me!

Then… yesterday, Friday the 18th I received the second package! WOW, is that some kind of speed record? He shipped it last Friday and I received it the very next Friday! Now, to decide what to do. I sent another email to Simon to let him know that I have them both now. It really isn’t in my budget for more yarn right now, but I really hate to send it back. I’ll wait to hear from Simon to know what to do. In the meantime, here is my happy yarn…

Happy Yarn

yarn in my UNLINED Lucy Bag

I know I said I would finish my cute little brown vest, but it’s so hard to look at my happy yarn and not work on my blanket. So I started hooking away…

just started color 4

Thursday at work…

Lunch time hooking, color 5 waiting!

I made a list of the order that I will put the colors and I am really enjoying the flow of the pattern and how soft the yarn is to work with.

This is a 3 day weekend for us and I want to finish the brown vest, and work on my blanket. Rick and I are going to town today to get my oil changed and his tires rotated, so during the waiting time I hope to get a little knitting or hooking done!

On Friday, Dec 31 we had the day off of work so I spent a few hours knitting with two wonderful women. What a great way to finish the year up, knitting with good friends.

Anyway, while chatting I shared my big secret… I had been looking at “Crocheting” blogs. Yes, the C-word. I guess I have become a bit of a Knitting-Snob and all it took was for me to find Attic 24. Lucy’s blog will inspire you, and amaze you. Her wonderful crocheted items are in such cheery colors and her photos make you feel like you are right there (well I sure wish I was, I would love to travel to this part of the world… someday). Anyway, I have spent many hours reading and looking at her blog, and many of the blogs she is following. I know that I am not the only one that has spent many hours reading her blog too! LOL

OK, I’m hooked (get it, hooked) I stopped my knitting (only for a bit – don’t freak out) and I have found a couple of crochet hooks and dug in my yarn pile and started in. First a test of the Granny Stripe…

Dark blue and Orange! This is just a test!

I have been looking for a yarn that will be like the yarn that Lucy used to make her Granny Stripe (she used Stylecraft’s Special DK – NOT available her in the US). I think I am now almost ready to just order it from Mason’s – they have a special deal where you get the 17 skeins that Lucy put together for her blanket. The cost for this great deal is about $68 US. The shipping is almost as much as the yarn! But, from all the comments that I have read, everyone raves about the yarn and the yardage (295 meters – that’s a lot of yarn!)

I have lots of Cascade 220, and have decided that for now I’m going to use it to make a pillow cover. I have several very large floor pillows and I think one would look great with a new cover. And it’s not to large of a project, and I get to practice my crocheting skills. It’s just like riding a bike – it is all coming back to me very quickly and I think I have found my rhythm pretty quickly because it has all been very simple so far.

first eleven little squares on the top of my laptop.

It’s hard to see the true colors, but you get the idea. All of the colors I am using are heathers.

A little darker picture just before bed the other night.

a good start

This morning I decided I needed to make something that i could finish… BIRDIE!

Can't wait to take this little birdie to work and hang it up!

I used scraps of this and that… Blue Skys Alpaca Cotton (the colors are much better in real life) some Cascade 220 and just a touch of some Frog Tree yarn that was left over from a project long, long ago.

Up close with Birdie!

So now I’m going to get back to my squares. After the next one (#12) I’m going to start the crocheting together with dark blue. I’ll post more later. Please, please rush over to Lucy’s blog and become hooked too!

I’m using size 6 needles and I didn’t check my gauge this time because it doesn’t really matter about the size outcome. It will fit someday. This yarn is very soft and the color is beautiful I wish I could get a good picture of the color… however, it splits very easily. If you are careful, it’s fine, and the fabric feels great. I started this on Saturday afternoon. And by Sunday I was done with one sleeve. Then along came Monday… a crazy day at best. While sitting in the waiting room at my doctor’s office I was able to half of the next sleeve done. I thought it would be done by now, but then those darn Shingles got in the way. Yes, the reason I was at my doctor’s office was to find out if I had Shingles on my back. I knew it hurt and was red and swollen and I had a fever and monster headache. Confirmation came after an hour and half. Now the medicine I’m taking is making me dizzy and sick to my stomach… well I think it’s the meds… all this is really cutting into my knitting time! I’m home today and napping a lot to make up for last night, maybe after I finish this post I will try to finish the Whirligig.

If you are looking for a great quick and fun baby/toddler project I highly recommend this one. BEWARE: the pattern says it requires A LOT more yarn than it really does. If you research your projects before you start on Ravelry you’ll see the same comment from tons of other people, too much yarn stated in the pattern. Right now it looks like I’ll be using 2 balls (228 yards) for the 6 month size. I think it suggested 375 yards! This yarn is DK weight and that is what they suggest in the pattern. I’m thinking about making another one of these in dark purple Cotton-Ease next.

Snow? Yep yesterday morning Rick followed me to work so I could drop off my car to be fixed and it was snowing really hard when we got to Montesano. Crazy isn’t it? We left work about noon to head to Olympia for my eye appointment and the wind was really blowing, no more snow because it had warmed up to 42 degrees. Then I heard that in the mountains (on both passes) it’s supposed to snow up to 3 feet by last night!

Daybreak the shawl! Not what happens in the morning… I’m not a morning person.

I picked up the Daybreak shawl/scarf pattern at Yarnia in Portland and picked up the yarn for it at Twisted the same day. If you look at this pattern on Stephen West’s blog you will see many different variations. I saw it on an employee at Twisted and fell in love with it, and the yarn and the colors! I would never have picked these two colors, but I’m glad I got to see what they look like together. The yarn is Mini Mochi, here’s the scoop on the yarn…

Mini Mochi is a lovely self-striping, fine, single ply yarn from Crystal Palace. Perfect for socks and any other fine knit projects.

Fiber: 80% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon

Weight: 50g

Yardage: 195yds / 180m

Needle size: US 1 – 2

Gauge: 7 – 8 sts per 1”

Care: Handwash or Machinewash with Cool Water on Gentle Cycle. Dry Flat.

Yarn Weight: Fingering / Light

And here are the two skeins I pick up. Color #109 and Color #113

Mini Mochi - Yummy!

pretty!

can't wait to get started on this one!

One more quick bit of news that I wanted to share in case you haven’t checked it out yet… Twist Collective has the new Spring 2010 up! I love it… and I’m sure you will find something you love too. I love this online magazine, if you haven’t ever checked them out you really should. I love being able to click on the advertisements and it takes you right to their website. If you click on the title of the pattern you will see additional information about the pattern, or you can just add it to your shopping basket.

Easter weekend is here. Chocolate bunnies, egg hunts, new Easter dresses and peeps… but I wanted to say more than Happy Easter, let’s not forget the real reason we celebrate… He has risen.

More knitting updates to come this weekend… hubby is out on duty all night… can we say KNITTING MARATHON!

Today was to be a work day. Notice I said “was to be”… woke up with a bit of a headache, so I popped a few Advil and jumped into the shower. By the time I was ready to leave the house I could hardly keep my head upright. And now we get sunshine! Doesn’t it just figure that when you really don’t want sunshine, you get it! But the show must go on, so off to work I drove (with sunglasses). It started raining less than half way there and then more sunshine, beautiful glare on the road! Now I’m squinting and shrugging down. Only 25 more minutes until I get to work I tell myself. Then it hits me… pull over quickly, and jump out to get rid of the latte/protein drink I had before I left the house. This is not turning out to be a good Monday. Quick call to cancel my day at work and back home with a quick stop at the store. It is now almost 6:30pm… I slept 6 hours with only interruption (my husband called to tell me he was on the way home – e gad!) Hubby is not sick and does not have a headache… they had a death of a tribal member where he works, so they sent everyone home. Anyway, I’m up now, feeling drained and weak, but no headache!

So what else can I tell you besides what a rotten Monday this was? Hey I know! Let me share with you some yarn pictures… touching and looking at my yarn always makes me feel better. This is what I bought when Julie and I went to Portland Yarn Crawl (I think of it as the day I cheated on my LYS)!

Malabrigo – Yummy Yummy Yummy Yarn!

This will someday be a Mr. Greenjeans sweater.

I love the color of this yarn

OK, in case you can’t tell… I fell in love with this yarn. While we were at Twisted in Portland, OR – I stopped around and looked and looked and touched all the yarn, and they have a lot of yarn. I picked this yarn up twice and put it back twice… then just before we were to leave I ran back and grabbed it all! Yes, that’s right I bought 10 skeins. I’ve had to keep it out in my car so that I wouldn’t start winding it, to cast on for the Mr. Greenjeans sweater. Yesterday I brought it in the house and put it away so that I could see it. But when it’s quiet like right now, I can hear it calling to me.

This is a hard one to photograph so you can see the beautiful color.

This is such a pretty yarn – it’s Cascade Venezia – 70% Merino Wool, 30% Silk. Our first stop on the yarn crawl was at The Naked Sheep Knit Shop – this is a fun place in a fun location. When we walked out with big smiles on our faces (even if I didn’t get a bright orange tote – they didn’t have any – bummer) anyway, the smell in the air was FANTASTIC! There is a pizzeria next door and we had to hurry on to the next stop, or we could have spent the day there.

Yarn for a baby sweater

You can never have enough sock yarn on hand!

I found this yarn at the Yarn Garden at the end of our day. All the Koigu was on sale and I had been looking for this yarn to make a baby sweater. So I couldn’t walk out empty-handed.

Hey, I took a couple more pictures of my Duck Lake Shawl… I love it, I just need to make myself stick to it so I can get onto my next project… maybe a Mr. Greenjeans sweater. Or maybe the Wicked Vest pattern with the beautiful deep eggplant purple yarn I bought.

Ripples up close

Color #3 and #4 - it the home stretch now

Well I better wrap up now so I can knit a little before bed. Hope you guys have a great week, and I’m hoping that tomorrow goes better than today… I don’t have any more sick time on the books!

My Favorite men…

my baby brother and my husband

Got Yarn?

Thanks for stopping in to visit my blog.

My love affair with yarn started with a trip to my LYS (The Yarn Corner in Aberdeen, WA) in March of 2006, and since that day I can't get enough! This is also when I learned to knit and gained many new friends.

Please be sure to leave me a message or just say HI! I'd love to know where you are from and if you knit or crochet too!